Looking to get into mandolin

[The Minstrel in the Gallery]

I've been wanting to start playing the mandolin for quite some time now. I've been playing guitar for a few years and am pretty proficient and was wondering how similar one plays to the guitar. Also, what brand should I look into when buying one? I obviously want something cheap since this will be my first one.

[CombatRock]

Rouge has some good/cheap mandolins, they also have some electic if you want that.

I play bass, guitar and mandolin and to me mandolin is the hardest of the three.


Its not like a guitar at all the, strings are tuned the oposite of a bass GDAE instead of EADG. And of course they are in pairs of too.

But man get one, they are a hell of allot of fun to play on, chords are really easy to learn, most of them only take 3 fingers.

[zhyla]

A good starter brand is Kentucky, they make some nice all-solid A-styles in the $150-250 range. I would avoid laminate topped mandos unless you're really hard up for cash. Mandolin is hard enough to play as it is, you don't need a cheaply made instrument making it any harder than it has to be.

As far as similarities... well, you pick and strum, it's the same basic mechanics. It's easier to strum really fast than on guitar.

Differences... it's tuned in 5ths, so you have to cover 6 or 7 frets to play scales. You have to forget about the one-finger-per-fret mentality that works well on guitar and stretch finger lots of stuff. Also the tension is higher than acoustic guitars, expect to build thicker callouses.

Definitely get one and give it a shot, it's a tough instrument but really amazing in the right hands.

[CombatRock]

Yea, there is nothing more beautiful then someone playing the mandolin well.

Kentucky is a great brand, but i never realised they made models that cheap. I might acctually get me a new one. The one i have is an old poatoe back one, an antique my grandma gave me.